Maintaining Your Home and Saving Money

Should you buy an electric or hybrid vehicles? Is it the right time, can you save enough money to off set the higher prices of these vehicles? Are the charging stations convenient enough? Is the technology mature enough as compared to the traditional gasoline or diesel powered vehicles? We think that most consumers are still concluding that the answer is no and it is still not time to make the transition from gasoline or diesel powered cars to an electric or hybrid vehicle. We will examine a few of the reasons why in the following paragraphs. Note that the industry is make tremendous strides in terms of the technology and the all important charging station issue.

Should You Buy an Electric or Hybrid Vehicles Now

We think that the issues can be narrowed down to the following five issues without considering items such as look and feel of the car for electric or hybrid vehicle purchase plans. These can be factors for some consumers over one model vs. another, but the transition to the electric vehicle is controlled by the following.

Price

Range

Charge

Power

Convenience

Upgrades

Price – are still higher for a comparable electric or hybrid vehicle vs the same model gasoline powered car.

Range – for hybrid cars is well up there compared to traditional cars, but battery technology has a long way to go before all electric vehicles will make the grade

Charge – power stations are not frequent enough yet. Consumers driving large RV’s must plan their route around places to stop for the night, electric cars are still in this same planning horizon.

Power – all electric vehicles have excellent ratings for 0 – 60, not so much for the hybrids. If this is important to you then you may want to wait a bit.

Convenience – for recharging to less space inside your car for luggage etc might be an issue for many consumers. The writer found that most hybrids and all electrics cannot carry the luggage for the family without major reductions.

Upgrades – all cars but especially the new all electrics are more and more controlled by computers which will need upgrades from time to time to reflect improvements and glitches that need repairs. A mature vehicle development for the electric car industry still has a way to go.

Other issues that many consumers will also consider include roominess, look and feel of the car, colors, and maintenance costs. Also top speed, resale values (which have not yet been determined for many new vehicles) and a host of other items.